Chandler, Kidd help Knicks dump Dallas Mavericks

NEW YORK -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said that he was going to good-naturedly boo New York Knicks players Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler during Friday night's game at Madison Square Garden.

If Cuban followed through, neither Kidd nor Chandler heard him.

In fact, Kidd said: "When I was on the floor I was moving so fast that I didn't really hear the crowd."

Apparently, the Knicks were moving too fast for the Mavs to keep up as New York ran past Dallas 104-94 before a sellout crowd of 19,033. The loss snapped the Mavs' three-game winning streak, and they'll end this brief two-game road trip at Charlotte at 6:30 tonight.

Kidd and Chandler were integral parts of the Mavs' 2011 championship run, and both left Dallas via free agency.

But Kidd, who finished with six points and three assists in 15 minutes, promised that there was nothing special about beating the team he spent the past four years with.

"It's just a win," Kidd said.

The Mavs had plenty of chances to ruin things for Kidd, Chandler and company. But 40.7 percent shooting, 8-of-28 shooting from 3-point range, and 20 turnovers leading to 20 Knicks points helped do in the Mavs, who dropped to 4-2 on the season.

"We've been staying away from a high turnover game since the exhibition season, but tonight it got us," coach Rick Carlisle said. "New York is a veteran team and if you give them more possessions than you, they are going to turn them into points."

The Mavs actually led 39-30 late in the second quarter before the Knicks started chipping away until they trimmed their halftime deficit to 59-57.

Carmelo Anthony scored 31 points for New York, J.R. Smith added 22, and Chandler had a pair of huge second-half baskets that got the crowd going and sent the Mavs reeling.

Meanwhile, point guard Darren Collison, who was just 1-of-8 from the field with four points, four turnovers and eight assists, blamed himself for the Mavs' disjointed offense.

"I'm really disappointed in my performance tonight," Collison said.

"I felt like I let my team down tonight. Not being aggressive is one thing, and I felt I let my team down in that aspect. I promise you that I'll be in full-mode attack the next game.''

Even after the Knicks seized control of the game in the third quarter, the Mavs were still hanging around. But a tip-in by Chandler and his rebound dunk -- it turned into a three-play play -- lifted the Knicks ahead 96-86 with 6:08 remaining."We didn't make shots," said Mavs swingman Vince Carter, who scored 15 points. "We got our shots in the first half and they picked up their intensity [in the second half].

"They started hitting easy shots and getting easy baskets in the half court and in transition. That gave them confidence and they were rolling."

O.J. Mayo led the Mavs with 23 points and seven rebounds, but also contributed eight turnovers.

Meanwhile, Chandler was reminiscing about the 2011 Mavs' championship team that never had a chance to repeat.

"You hate to dwell on the past because there's nothing you can do about it at this point," said Chandler, who finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. "It was very unfortunate, because I've got all the respect in the world for the guys that I laced them up with in Dallas.

"Even the organization, they treated me great when I was there. So it was more of a disappointment that we didn't have another shot [to repeat] together.''